"Economically, they're phenomenal."

Since then, a lot of smart people have rushed to the American media to say that, on the contrary, high tariffs are horrible.

Trump is right. Although these levies would increase costs to American consumers, the costs would not be nearly as great as experts say. Moreover, there are other considerations, both economic and national security, favoring raising tariffs now.

"As president, Trump shattered the long-standing Republican orthodoxy of favoring free trade," Bloomberg noted in commentary accompanying the interview, released on July 16th: "He says he'll go further if reelected." Trump talked about increasing tariffs on, among others, China.

Trump happens to be right about China. In February, speaking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures, he suggested he might impose tariffs greater than 60% on Chinese imports.

Critics from the American elite howl. "This is going to add price inflation across the board, all in the name of 'tough guy' election-year politics," said Yael Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center, in comments carried by Bloomberg.

"The long historical record demonstrates these are borne not by other countries, as Mr. Trump keeps insisting, but by American consumers and industries," writes Steven R. Weisman of the Washington, D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, about tariffs.

The long historical record might show that, but not the immediate one. In 2018, Trump imposed additional tariffs on China and analysts warned that prices in America would rise. Smart people in America, however, forgot that China had an incentive to effectively pay the tariffs: The Chinese government and exporters absorbed 75% to 81% of the cost of the additional levies. They did so primarily through the government increasing export and other subsidies and factories accepting lower profit margins.